Marco Vitale continues his thrilling project to record the complete cantatas by Handel, many of which have never before been recorded in their entirety or indeed at all, together with ensemble Contrasto Armonico and here featuring the Italian soprano Beatrice Palumbo. Six cantatas are presented in this third volume of the series, grouped together by the common theme of unrequited love, including “Chi rapi la pace”, one of the earliest of Handel’s Italian works.

Consisting of about 100 separate works, Handel’s cantatas were mostly written over a period of a few years for private performance in Italy. The cantatas range from musical miniatures containing only two arias connected by recitative and accompanied by continuo (a bass line typically realized by cello and harpsichord) to larger works with named characters, a dramatic story, and rich instrumental forces. These are intimate works, with texts frequently written by (and sometimes about) members of the privileged audience for which they were composed. A number of Handel’s cantatas have texts by one of his important Italian patrons, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj.

Handel did not publish his cantatas, probably because they were written in private circumstances, but as a result they served him as a repository of inventive material throughout his life. Especially as he moved from city to city before settling for good in London, Handel chose to give his new audiences a chance to hear music he had written elsewhere.

The continuo cantatas have never been recorded in full and many have never been recorded at all. Thus, this project will bring to life largely unknown music by one of the world’s greatest composers.

Marco Vitale is the co-founder and musical director of “Contrasto Armonico”, baroque orchestra specialized in the performance of music in Italian style and baroque operas, using original instruments and historical performance practices.